1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a traffic means controlling apparatus for realizing the efficient control of traffic means such as elevators, traffic means in road traffic or railways, or the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the construction of a conventional traffic means controlling apparatus applied to the group supervisory control of elevators. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 designates a group supervisory controlling apparatus executing the group supervisory control of plural elevators, reference numerals 2.sub.1 to 2.sub.N designate car controlling apparatus respectively controlling each elevator car, axed reference numerals 3.sub.1 to 3.sub.M designate hall call input and output controlling apparatus executing the inputting and outputting of hall calls of each floor. And, in the group supervisory controlling apparatus 1, reference numeral 11 designates a feature discriminating part discriminating feature modes classified into several patterns in a day, and reference numeral 12 designates a drive controlling means controlling the car controlling apparatus 2.sub.1 to 2.sub.N in accordance with the feature modes discriminated by the feature discriminating part 11 and executing the group supervisory control of elevators.
Next, the operation will be described thereof. In a building equipped with plural elevators the control of each elevator is generally done by means of the group supervisory control. That is to say, the traffic service in such a building is promoted to be improved by means of practicing the group supervisory control, in which hall calls generated by each hall call input and output controlling apparatus 3.sub.1 to 3.sub.M are watched online at first, and suitable elevators are selected under the consideration of the service states in the whole building, and then the selected elevators are assigned to the generated hall calls. Now, the traffic flows in a building greatly vary with the day of the week and the time zone in a day such as the opening time, the lunchtime, the closing time and the like. Accordingly, the group supervisory controlling apparatus 1 is required to control elevators with its control patterns switched according to the variations of the traffic flows at the time of the group supervisory control of elevators.
Therefore, in the conventional group supervisory control method, for example the numbers of persons getting on and off at each floor are observed, and the traffic volumes in the building at prescribed time zones are estimated (hereinafter these observable data are referred to as "traffic volume data" for distinguishing from the traffic flows), then the variations of the traffic flows are grasped from the traffic volume data. Namely, some variants to the traffic volume data (hereinafter referred to as "feature elements") such as the total numbers of persons getting on at specified time zones, the degrees of congestion at specific floors and the like are previously set, and the values of these feature elements are obtained from the traffic volume data, then the features of the traffic flows are described by the use of the combinations of the obtained values. And, a day is previously classified into some feature modes by means of extracting time zones having the values of the feature elements which are or may be regarded to be the same. The feature discriminating part 11 discriminates feature modes to determine which feature mode of the classified some feature modes corresponds, and sets control parameters for controlling each elevator to the drive controlling apparatus 12 in accordance with the discriminated feature modes. The drive controlling part 12 assigns the optimum elevators to the generated hall calls on the basis of the set control parameters to execute the group supervisory controlling of the car controlling apparatus 2.sub.1 to 2.sub.N.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Sho 59-22870 describes the techniques concerning such a conventional traffic means controlling apparatus.
The conventional traffic means controlling apparatus is constructed as described above, and consequently, it has the problems as follows. That is to say, the feature elements for describing the feature modes of traffic flows are needed to be previously set to be suitable to each building; if these feature elements are strictly set, the traffic of the building of a day becomes being classified into a great many numbers of feature modes; if the feature elements are simply set, the distinction precision of the feature modes becomes worse; furthermore, because each feature element are different in their units or importance respectively, it is frequently accompanied with difficulty to distinguish the identity among each feature mode suitably.
Furthermore, a user cannot refer to the control results or the drive results under the control parameters being the standard, and consequently, the conventional traffic means controlling apparatus has another problem that it is difficult to grasp the method of the efficient correction of the control parameters.
Furthermore, the conventional traffic means controlling apparatus can also estimate traffic volumes, but the conventional estimation of the traffic volumes is done by statistically treating past traffic volumes, for example by calculating the weighted averages of the traffic volumes at the same time zones for past several days. However, for example, there can be many differences in the beginning and ending times of rush hours or the numbers of passengers on days even in the same building, and consequently, the conventional traffic means controlling apparatus has another problem that errors happen in the estimated traffic volumes, then the distinction precision of the feature modes falls.